2003-12-27 - 9:28 a.m.

Frohe Wiehnachten Meine Liebe

Deck the halls with boughs of holly...tra la la la LA......

And what an eventful twelve days it has been. I am typing from K's computer which means alot of misplaced zs and ys, among other things. I am ensconced in the apartment above the bakery across the street from the north cemetery and the north school, and happily positioned three doors down from the best curry in J*na, namely City Pizza.

Last week, the movers came and packed up all of my worldly posessions that I hadn't given or thrown away. I work in a barren office, and instead of being depressing, it is rather uplifting. I feel light, and free of THINGS.

The cats were especially traumatized by the move, but then again so was I at first. It's hard to give up an idyllic home with trees and garden and quiet for an apartment above the bakery. But slowly but surely we are adjusting. Mizzy still speeds through the house at 3am crying to get out, and Lira spends most of her time sleeping under the bed or in the window watching the cars go by (she's never seen them before - they must seem vaguely like large wildlife to her). I'm mostlz shocked by the small packed kitchen, but nevertheless managed to successfully roast a duck in it, so it can't be so bad.

K is bending over backwards to make me feel like this is my home. Cleaning out boxes, making space, tolerating cats who whine and scratch at the doors at three am...There have only been a few minor tense moments, but otherwise he is extremely easy to live with. Domestic tranquility indeed. We bought a lovely Christmas tree (the German kind with hazardous candles); I created homespun stockings (one for the cats as well, stuffed with catnip)..And on Christmas Eve, after I read 'The Night before Christmas,' K read the Christmas story from Luke (in German). And, we succeeded in producing a successful Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings.

Yesterday was my very last concert with the Jubilee Singers. I was surprisingly relaxed through it all, and only became slightly misty-eyed during the final Alleluja -my favorite encore. Norbert and Klaus organized a lovely bouquet of flowers for me, but it all felt somehow rather anti-climactic. It stopped feeling like my choir sometime ago - no pun intended but the harmony is gone, my favorite people have left or changed, or no longer stop for a drink. The choir has already moven on without me, or I have already let go sometime this fall. This is somewhat sad, unless I think of it in the perspective that I will always remember it as my family in Jena.

Naja..now I must go pick up a carpet cleaner and go back to renovating the old house. ugh, some German traditions, like those of giving up an apartment, I could DEFINITELY do without.